Oddly enough, as much of a fan of the Gothic Metal movement back in the day as I was, I never liked Lacuna Coil. I found their music to be a little more haunting then others, and one or two of their singles I did enjoy, but their albums just never really clicked to me. Honestly, when it comes to the female Gothic Metal movement and how stagnant it’s become, this is one of those bands I blame for it. Between this group and Evanescence, this style’s potential diminished immediately, which is so sad to sit back and think about. We’re five albums into the band’s career up to this point, with their sixth right on the horizon. I admit right now I don’t listen to this band, have not heard all their material outside Comalies and Karmacode, but from my understanding it won’t hurt my general perception of the band’s material past and present.

Recently Lacuna Coil issued the first single off Dark Adrenaline, due through Century Media Records, and it’ll probably just be the first in a slew of oncoming digital single downloads. With that, I decided to pick it up and see what’s in store for me with this album, and right away I was simply not impressed. Between the group’s simpler Alternative Rock style chords and the typical duet performance of literally every single the band has issued since I first hear Comalies, I knew it was more of the same and I didn’t miss much by passing up Shallow Life thanks to even dedicated fans negative input to me about it. There’s nothing here that I really can say is truly unique to this song compared to anything else the band has released over the years, but I do have to say that it does have a few good traits I feel I should touch upon.

Through this song, it’s clear that Dark Adrenaline has a good production value. With “Trip the Darkness,” it allowed the song to be surprisingly heavier then I would have expected from what I heard of the band’s critically acclaimed releases, and the slight additional keyboard influence to the track does add a bit of a darker atmosphere without going too over-the-top with it. The performances themselves are energetic, and, well, that’s about all I can say that’s good about this song. Other then the atmosphere and keyboards, it’s typical Alternative Rock with a slightly gothic environment. It’s as basic as turning on your local modern Rock radio station and hearing a song from five years ago at this point.

So, suffice it to say, I was not at all shocked with what I heard. I didn’t feel like I wasted money in downloading this song from iTunes, and in fact feel better knowing I bought this song and not the album, especially for review. I’m not looking forward to the review copy that comes my way, but overall, the song isn’t bad. “Trip the Darkness” just sounds like everything else they’ve done that I’ve heard in the past nine years. So, I can only assume the same can be said for Dark Adrenaline since every single is practically the same. If you’re a raving Lacuna Coil fan, this article won’t phase your decision to buy it day one in 2012, but I can tell you right now I have absolutely no intention of physically paying for a copy of this release after hearing this generic song.

Article based on digital review material provided by Century Media Records.